SMEs measure cost of red tape

Friday, September 29, 2006

Compliance with government bureaucracy costs Lm1,500 to Lm2,000 a year for the average SME with between five and 10 employees, according to the director general of the Malta Chamber of Commerce and Industry Kevin Borg.

“Obviously the amount goes up with the size and complexity of the company. We had one survey respondent whose compliance fees amounted to Lm300,000!”

He was speaking at a business breakfast at the Le Meridien Phoenicia organised by The Malta Business Weekly aimed at analysing Malta’s results in this year’s World Economic Forum index of global competitiveness.

Malta increased its overall ranking from 44th place to 39th, its performance being dragged down by the poor macroeconomic situation and the burden of government compliance. Almost a quarter of businesses identified inefficient government bureaucracy as their leading obstacle.

The country ranked a meagre 96th in terms of government deficit and debt.